Photo taken on Aug. 29, 2020 shows the rescue site of the collapsed restaurant in Xiangfen County of Linfen City, north China's Shanxi Province.Photo:Xinhua

Netizens have expressed fury that an apology has come from the 80-year-old man who was holding a birthday banquet at a restaurant in North China's Shanxi Province, which collapsed Saturday and killed 29 people, while no apology has been coming from those responsible for the accident. 

The banquet was being held to celebrate the 80th birthday of a local senior citizen surnamed Li, a local villager told the Global Times. Li narrowly escaped the collapse as he was greeting guests outside. However, the accident took the lives of 29 of his relatives and friends, including his wife, and left seven seriously injured and 21 slightly injured. 

When interviewed by local media, Li said he had not wanted to celebrate his birthday in the first place, but his relatives and friends insisted, adding, "I never imagined this would happen." 

Overcome by regret, Li knelt down before media and made an apology. 

Li's apology broke Chinese netizens' hearts and infuriated them at the same time. Thousands wrote on China's Twitter-like microblogging platform Weibo to comfort the senior citizen, and urged those responsible for the accident to make apologies instead. 

One netizen wrote, "It is not your fault. It is not you who should apologize."

"It is to do with the contractor, and not the old man," read another comment. 

"Go investigate the departments concerned," others wrote. 

Local authorities have vowed to find the cause and the nature of the accident as soon as possible, and said those responsible will be dealt with in accordance with the law, China Emergency Management News reported Sunday.